This release gives listeners a chance to witness an iconic masterpiece of American dance. Alvin Ailey's Revalations has been described by The New york Times as "one of the great works of the human spirit."

This stunning, soulful tour de foce draws on African-American spirituals, song-sermons, gospel songs and holy blues. The wide-ranging influences and irrepressible passion of Revalations are evident across the rest of this electrifying program, which features Wayne McGregor's sumptuous Chroma, set to a score by Joby Talbot with orchestrations of songs by The White Stripes, Ronald K. Brown's Grace, a powerful meeting of modern and West African dance with a soundtrack by Duke Ellington, Roy Davis and Fela Kuti and Robert Battle's humorous, high-flying Takadem.

History

Ballet

In classic or contemporary ballet, dancing may tell a story, express a mood, or simply reflect the music in movement. Ballet as part of staged performances originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th and 16th centuries and from there spread to France. The creation of classical ballet as we know it today occurred during the reign of the art-loving French king Louis XIV in the mid-17th century. During the Romantic era, ballet technique evolved to express new ideas, most notably with women dancing en point, or on their toes, allowing them to appear weightless and otherworldly.

Among the choreographers who helped bring ballet into the modern age by exploring new visual and dramatic styles are George Balanchine, Antony Tudor and—bridging the worlds of classical dance and Broadway—Agnes de Mille and Jerome Robbins.

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